You know that when a cause has an entire month dedicated to it, it must be important. For years, October has been National Protect Your Hearing Month. Why? Because hearing isn’t just important — hearing is essential!
Hearing plays a huge role in our physical health, emotional well-being, and overall quality of life. The sound of laughter, music, the great outdoors, or simply conversations with friends and family fill each day and become vital parts of memories that last a lifetime.
That’s why it’s wise to protect your hearing and keep it the best it can be for as long as you can.
Protecting your hearing can help prevent hearing loss
Protecting your hearing from noise is the simplest way to prevent noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL), which is the second-leading cause of hearing loss. According to the CDC, nearly 40 million US adults aged 20-69 have noise-induced hearing loss, and one in four of us who report that our hearing is good already have hearing damage.
Luckily, noise-induced hearing loss is preventable. In fact, it’s the only preventable cause of hearing loss.
SoundGear Phantom offers advanced hearing protection
If you work in or are consistently around loud sounds, the best way to protect your hearing is to wear good hearing protection — and few solutions are better or more advanced than SoundGear Phantom.
Custom molded to your ear, SoundGear Phantom features advanced digital technology that delivers instant and immediate noise suppression when loud sounds occur and sophisticated electronic amplification in between those loud sounds — so you can comfortably wear them all day or during an entire activity knowing you’ll be able to hear what you need to hear while simultaneously protecting your hearing.
If that weren’t enough, SoundGear Phantom is also rechargeable and Bluetooth® compatible, so you can stream calls, music or other audio directly from your smartphone.
Pay attention and be prepared
All it takes to damage your hearing is exposure to sounds 85 decibels (dB) and above. How loud is that? Well, a food blender is around 88 dB. A typical car wash is 89 dB. A gas lawn mower is 96 dB. And noise from traffic, horns, subways, airports, and industrial activity consistently top that threshold.
So what’s a person to do? You can’t be expected to wear hearing protection when you’re making a milkshake.
No – but you should know your limits. The key to noise-induced hearing loss is decibel level PLUS time exposed: meaning how loud the noise is and how long you’re around it. All it takes is one loud gun blast or firecracker to cause damage — but unless you’re blending your shake for eight straight hours, you should be ok.
If you don’t work in loud environments, or maybe aren’t a weekend hunter or wood chopper, it’s still sound advice to protect your hearing, and this short video shows some easy ways to do it.
Protect your hearing by wearing hearing protection! Schedule an appointment today for a hearing consultation.